


know that i'm yours to keep

by onefootinsea_andoneonshore



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: (actual ones not emotional ones), (but those too), Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Amusement Parks, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, High School AU, I promise, Longing Stares, Love Confessions, Mileven Week 2018, Mileven Week Day 5, Modern AU, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, Roller Coasters, Will Byers is a little shit, but what else is new, el and will are stebsiblings because i said so, rated for language, ted wheeler is a horrible human being
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-08-21 09:26:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16573961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onefootinsea_andoneonshore/pseuds/onefootinsea_andoneonshore
Summary: El Hopper has been trying to tell her best friend that she’s in love with him for approximately nineteen months, two weeks, and four days, and a school trip to an amusement park presents a seemingly perfect opportunity to tell him. But how?Mike Wheeler is 100% head over heels for El Hopper, but she could never like him back. And she doesn't, so he's definitely reading too far into things when she starts acting to the contrary. Right?Seven hours, two oblivious teenagers, one amusement park.





	1. Roller Coaster

**Author's Note:**

> WOW I WROTE SOMETHING
> 
> Many thanks to @bluebellflames and @eleven-n-mike on tumblr for reading this over and for unwittingly giving me the inspiration I needed to finally write something, respectively
> 
> hmu on tumblr @onefootinsea-andoneonshore if you liked this!

The bus rattled and bounced over pothole-covered streets as Mike Wheeler took in what his best friend had just told him.

“ _No way_ , El, you’ve never been on a roller coaster? Really?”

El Hopper shook her head as her best friend stared at her, astonished. “Never! And I’m not sure if I want to, to be perfectly honest.”

“El. Hon. You  _have_  to. We’re going to an amusement park, it’s practically a requirement,” Max said, her head popping up behind El’s from the seat behind her. As if on cue, Dustin and Will’s heads appeared in front of them, and Lucas’s rose next to Max’s.

“What’s this about?” Will sighed, seeming to ready for controversy.

Before El could defend herself, Max spoke up. “She’s never been on a roller coaster, that’s what this is about!” A chorus of “no way”s and “seriously”s erupted around her.

“We should all go on one together,” Mike stated to the Party. “El Hopper, you will not leave StarPark without going on at least one roller coaster. Not if I can help it.” He looked her right in the eye with his pledge, and El giggled, out of excitement and amusement and the slight bit of awkwardness that comes with staring right at the boy you like. The boy you might just love.

“Well, I think I have to now, don’t I?” El said, smiling conspiratorially. This elicited a grin from her best friend, setting off a cloud of butterflies in her stomach.  _Why_ , she sometimes thought to herself,  _is Mike Wheeler so damn pretty_? She settled into his gaze for a moment, and noticed his smile soften, not dimming, but… sadder? She didn’t have time to analyze it before the school bus screeched to a halt in what seemed like a desolate parking lot. Mr. Clarke got up in front of the bus, speaking loudly over the din of sophomores.

“Remember, if you’re coming back at the end of the school day, you have to be by the front gate by two-  _Sam and Dylan, sit down_  -by two-thirty, okay? Anyone whose parents are picking them up in the evening can stay later. Now, form an orderly -”

All order was thrown out the window, as the bus-full of of students charged towards the door. The Party waited for the aisle to clear before grabbing their bags and stepping off of the bus.

“Where do we go?” El wondered aloud, looking around for where the rest of the class had gone.

“Across the parking lot,” Will told her. “There’s a tunnel that goes under the freeway and into the park.”

The group started their walk across the lot, which was mostly empty, being ten a.m. on a Friday. El looked into the distance and saw the highest point of a huge roller coaster. She didn’t realize that her jaw had dropped until she heard Mike’s voice beside her.

“That’s the Reaper. It’s the biggest coaster in the Park, probably the fastest one too. It’s super over-hyped, though, and probably a bit much for your first ever roller coaster. We should start with the Looper Trooper, it’s sort of tradition -”

“The Looper Trooper is lame,” Lucas interrupted.

“Ex _cuse_  me, the Looper is a classic!” Dustin replied.

“The Reaper, though, it’s the best. The first drop is just -”

“Oh, no way it beats the double dip on The Camel!”

“The what on the what?” El questioned, giving Dustin a face of confusion she seemed to only ever point at him.

“Oh, it’s the part on this one coaster - it’s wooden, like the Looper Trooper, so it’s not as fast as like, the Reaper or the Upside Down - that’s a whole other ride, you wouldn’t like that one - anyway, it does a double bump, so instead of just going down the hill straight, there’s two humps, which is why it’s called the Camel.” Mike explained.

“That’s not even the best one there!” Lucas replied. “There’s the Arachnid, which isn’t really a coaster, but it’s new so it’s so much smoother-”

“You have to appreciate the older designs-”

“Yeah, appreciate the outdated safety features and momentum-based propulsion, sure.”

“All roller coasters are powered by momentum, genius!” Dustin argued, which spun into the whole Party, minus Will and El, arguing about the merits of wooden versus metal roller coasters.

“Don’t worry about it, El, roller coasters aren’t really all that,” Will assured her, throwing an arm around her shoulders. Ever since his mom had married her dad, Will and El had been each other’s closest confidants, El being the first person Will came out to and Will being the first person El told about falling head-over-chucks for Mike Wheeler.

“I don’t doubt that, but it seems like it means a lot to everyone else, don’t you think?” El glanced over her shoulder at their squabbling friends. Mike’s head stuck out above the other three’s, due to a mid-freshman-year growth spurt. She could see how the mid-morning sun shone through his curls, making the frizz look like a halo - and she really needed to stop staring. Staring could wait until she wasn’t walking through a parking lot.

“See something you like?” Will teased, giving El’s shoulders a squeeze.

“Shut your goddamn mouth, Byers,” El said through gritted teeth, only half-joking. She couldn’t afford to have her step-brother give her away, when she’d been waiting for today for over a year and a half ( _nineteen months, two weeks, and four days,_  a part of her brain had calculated). Well, she hadn’t been waiting for this exact day, but she’d been trying to tell Mike that she liked him, and today seemed like the day to do so. Maybe they’d be at the top of a Ferris wheel, or after the whirlwind of a death-defying roller coaster, she’d look at him and he’d look at her and it would be like something out of a cliche teen movie. Or maybe she’d chicken out, like she had the past two times she’d tried to tell him.

Hopefully the former.

The group eventually came up on the tunnel that led to the park. El ran her fingertips over the brightly painted walls, seeing that one image was a large Ferris wheel. It felt like a sign of sorts that today just  _had_  to go well.

“Hey, there it is!” Dustin called from behind them. The other end of the tunnel was visible, and El gasped. It was bright and colorful, letters in lights advertising everything from snacks to shows to rides. Will's arm slid off of her shoulders as the rest of the party caught up with them.

Mike came up next to her, nudging her with his elbow. “You excited?”

“Well, it’s only my first ever trip to an amusement park, so I’d give it a solid five or six,” El deadpanned.

“You’re kidding, right? Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“Of course I’m kidding, Mike,” El reassured him. “I’m excited! Really, really excited.” The smile on Mike’s face was brighter than every light in the park. She took a deep breath in through her nose, smelling sugar in the air. It smelled a bit like promise.

 

* * *

 

“Behold: the Looper Trooper!” Dustin spread his arms, beholding the colorful, if chipping, sign for the roller coaster. It turned out that the Looper was the closest ride to the entrance, and El’d had barely any time to take in the rest of the park before the group had whisked her to the entrance of the ride.

“It’s not that great, Dustin,” Lucas sighed.

“Yeah, uh, where is it?” Max asked, looking through the entrance.

“ _Well_ , it’s El’s first roller coaster, so let’s try to not be dicks, friends,” Dustin said dejectedly. “And for your information, Max, it goes down into a ravine, so there’s not as much of a visible hill.”

“Who knew Dustin was a roller coaster nerd?” El murmured to Mike.

He shrugged in response, laughing slightly. “I guess we haven’t all been here at the same time before recently. Not since you and Max moved here, at least.”

“Oh yeah, we were  _much_  more important than any silly roller coasters.”

“How do you know that? Maybe we were just growing out of it.”

“Please, coming here has been the only thing you’ve talked about for the past week and a half.”

Mike conceded with a dramatic sigh. “I  _suppose_  that’s true.”

El laughed and followed Mike into the line for the ride along with their friends.

The line for the coaster was long, but moved quickly, as there were two different cars one could go on per round, each with a dozen or so seats. As the Party joined the queue, Dustin lectured them on how exactly the Looper Trooper was a single track, even though it seemed to have two separate lanes (which gave the coaster its name). El tuned him out and began fiddling with the hairband on her wrist. It has been a gift from her dad - Hop, not her birth father - and it was a grounding point to her, reminding her she was okay and would be okay.

“Hey, you okay? You’re playing with your bracelet again,” Mike said to her under his breath, so that no one else could hear. She glanced up at him and saw concern in his eyes. He knew her too well, and she kinda loved him for it. “You know you don’t have to do this if you really don’t want to, I was kidding earlier. Mostly.”

El snorted at that, the edges of her mouth curling upwards. “I’ll be fine, Mike, I’m-I’m just nervous.” She clenched her jaw, trying to stifle the stutter that sometimes manifested when she was anxious.

“You’ll be alright, El,” he reassured her. The steadiness in his eyes was enough to slow the rapid beating of her heart, if only for a moment.

“Promise?”

“Promise.” There it was - another moment of that smile. It was sad, definitely, but warm, like summer rain, trickling down into her heart, making her blush and avert her eyes. It was these moments - these blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, did-it-really-happen things - that made her think, just maybe, that Mike liked her back, even a little.

“So,” El began, cutting through the split second of tension, “you guys were saying that the Looper Trooper is a tradition or something…?”

“Oh yeah! I mean, it’s not official or anything, but the Looper is basically everyone in Hawkins’s first roller coaster. It was my first one when I was… ten? I think?” Mike kept explaining everyone’s first ride, right up until they were about to get on the coaster.

“Okay, who’s going in which car?” Lucas called out. Max and El shared a look of confusion, and it was in that moment that El remembered that it was her first time here too.

“One of the two cars goes farther than the other and wins, but they switch it around,” she overheard Lucas explaining to Max.

“Mike and I’ll be in blue!” The words left El’s mouth before she could stop them.  _What are you doing_  - “Is that okay?” she asked, looking up at Mike, who seemed a bit astonished at the question.

“Uh, yeah, yes, totally,” Mike said, shaking his head as if he’d just woken up from a daze.

“Okay, good, because I don’t think I can do this without you,” El said, laughing nervously. “Now come on, let’s get seats!” She grabbed his wrist and dragged him to the left side of the tracks as if she’d been on this ride a thousand times.

“Yeah, I’m gonna go chaperone  _that_ ,” she heard Will’s voice say behind her. She rolled her eyes as they came up to the car.

Mike hopped in first, and dramatically offered his arm to help her in, as if he were some gentleman from a Jane Austen novel. “M’lady?”

“Nerd,” she smiled, shaking her head as she used his elbow as a balance to hop in next to him. The seats were snug, and it took some shifting before they were both comfortable. El fastened her seatbelt with shaking hands, and once the bar across their laps was secured, she grabbed it tightly, knuckles whitening. She took one deep, shuddering breath, then another.

The car lurched forward.

The movement prompted the riders to cheer in anticipation. They slowly rolled around a loop, beneath the original track, until the car was facing the opposite direction. At that point, it seemed to catch on something and begin an ascent up the first hill of the course.

“That wasn’t so bad,” El murmured, forgetting that Mike was right next to her.

“El, I really wish I could tell you that that was the worst of it, but we haven’t even gone down the first hill,” he said, a laugh creeping up around the edges of his voice. She heard a laugh behind her, and a glance over her shoulder showed her step-brother, eagerly watching the pair.  _Great_ , she thought, _that’s just great_.

The car neared the top of the hill, but as other raised their arms in the air, El kept her fingers firmly around the safety bar.

“Put your hands in the air!” She could only just hear Mike over her own heartbeat, but before she knew it, he was taking her right hand in his and lifting it above their heads, not quite holding it, but grasping it nonetheless, his thumb in the middle of her palm and his fingers across her knuckles

She almost turned to him, almost asked him what he was doing.

And then they flew downwards, and she wove her fingers through his.

The first drop took the breath from her lungs and the rhythm from her heart, feeling as if she were floating. She slowly raised the hand that had been clasping the bar so desperately, fingers splaying. They hit the bottom of the hill, and it was like everything was slammed back into place, and she could breathe again. Then it was back up a second hill, this one flattening out and passing through a tunnel before plummeting again.

Maybe it was adrenaline, maybe it was the fact that  _she was holding Mike’s hand and he was holding hers_ , whatever the cause, peals of laughter began bubbling out of El’s mouth. She heard Mike laughing too, a happy, bewildered laugh. There was another drop, a tight curve, and one last heart-stopping lift, and they were sliding into the track where they began.

She felt Mike’s eyes on her, and looked up at him, barely suppressing the last of her giggles. He looked at her with a sort of baffled wonder before bursting into laughter himself. Their car hadn’t won, she couldn’t have cared less.

El kept looking at him, for a moment longer than a moment, and her breath caught. lt was something about the smile on his face, the freckles dancing on his cheeks, the way he was still holding her hand even after the ride had stopped, that completely took her breath away.

She could’ve stared for hours.

“Come on, nerds, they’re gonna kick you guys off if you don’t stop making eyes at each other and get off the ride.”

Will’s voice brought them back to the reality of their situation, and El let go of Mike’s hand with a start.

“Sorry about that, I sort of panicked.”  _Stupid, stupid, this was your moment, and you chickened out again, for fuck’s sake-_

“I get it, it’s okay,” Mike said with a half-hearted chuckle, clambering out of the car. She followed him out, only to be swept up by her step-brother as they left the tracks behind.

“Soooooo-”

“Shut up.” El couldn’t bear her brother’s teasing. She’d just given up what seemed like her best chance at confessing her feelings to Mike.

But the worst part?

He didn’t even care. He brushed it off, because it was no big deal, they were just friends, best pals, nothing like some platonic hand-holding, right? He hadn’t said it, but he might as well have.

Dustin, Lucas, and Max laughed and bragged as they exited the ride, having been in the winning car, but El couldn’t hear them over her own thoughts, the what-ifs rushing through her brain. All the while, her gaze was affixed on Mike. Mike, the boy she was in love with, who was there for her when others weren’t, who was the brightest star in the dark sky of her life.

Mike, who surely didn’t like her back.


	2. The Drop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mike knows that El Hopper is a force of nature, and there’s no way in hell she meant anything by their hand-holding on the Looper (because why would she, Mike’s just a gangly nerd, nothing special, certainly not), but an interesting conversation with Will gives him a glimmer of hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> life is a Bitch but i finished this!! it only took three months but i did it!! also you'll see I put a planned number of chapters up there, which i kinda got the number of because of noDownSide's comment on the previous chapter (thanks for that btw!!) thanks to jazz (freshbloom on here, @calpurnias on tumblr) for being an amazing beta on this chapter and for listening to me rant about mileven 24/7. lov uuuuuu

Mike could’ve sworn that the look of wonder on El’s face when they stepped into the park was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. He definitely could’ve. But would he have? No way. No way in hell would he say that out loud. At least, not when El Hopper, his best friend, adopted daughter of the police chief, step-sister to his other best friend, total badass, and love of his life, was within earshot.

And yeah, “love of his life” was a strong term, but it was definitely warranted. El had moved to Hawkins when Mike was in seventh grade, after the Chief had found her living in an abusive home just outside of town. Rumors said that she’d been starved, others said that she hadn’t been able to talk. She was only supposed to live with Hopper until they found El’s birth mother, but for whatever reason, she’d stayed, and Mike was beyond thankful for that.

By eighth grade, she was in school. Even then, she barely spoke, but what she did say expressed fierce intelligence and wit. So, in the second week of school, Mike invited her to AV club, and El was adopted into The Party. They’d been through a lot together - the post-traumatic stress that El still dealt with, the implosion of Mike’s parents’ marriage, the first two years of high school, and everything between. They even went to homecoming together their freshman year - as friends, since tickets were two-for-one if you came in pairs.

But this was not why Mike was in love with her. He was in love with her because she  _ listened _ , rather than just hearing. He loved her because she was the first person besides his friends who thought of him as more than a weirdo-dweeb. He loved her for the wonder she expressed whenever she had a new experience, and the way she cared for everyone in her life with her whole heart. He loved her soft smiles, her bubbly laughter, her dry, sarcastic humor,  _ her _ . But Mike had resigned himself long ago to the fact that El would never feel the same. She was smart and funny and beautiful and  _ so _ caring, she could have anyone.

So when they get to StarPark, the amusement park located a half-hour south of Hawkins, Mike has no expectation of anything unusual. He sees her anxiety as they wait in line for the roller coaster, and tries to help her, but she’s still shaking as they enter the loading area.

That’s when things got... strange.

Her sudden proclamation of where the two of them would be sitting was his first sign of weirdness. Impulsiveness was a rare trait for her to exhibit, and his surprise was only furthered when she pulled him over to the car. Her words, however, kept pinging through his mind -  _ “I can’t do this without you.” _ As the ride began, her eyes were stuck on the horizon, and her breathing was shaky.

Now, at this point, Mike was a little confused, but it was overridden by his concern for El _.  _ Nearing the peak, he’d tried to break her out of the anxious daze she seemed stuck in by gently removing one of her hands from the bar. It shook slightly as he lifted it, and Mike felt a pang in his heart.  _ Did you pressure her into this? _ Mike asked himself -  _ Is she going to hate you for this? _

And then the most astonishing thing of all happened -  _ she held his hand _ . Her fingers grasped his so tight, he thought they’d turn purple.

But it was just  _ wonderful _ . Her hand was warm and soft, seeming to tremble, not from anxiety, but from excitement. She couldn’t see it, but he was smiling like a fool.

And then she started laughing, and he couldn’t help but join in, because they were flying through the air and she was holding his hand and they were  _ invincible _ .

As they finished the ride, they were laughing again, and El was looking at him like she’d never looked at him before, like he, Mike Wheeler, was something to behold. Or so he’d thought, because it was an accident, she hadn’t meant to hold his hand, not really. He’d laughed and brushed it off, because how was he supposed to explain the truth, that El Hopper was  _ it _ for him, everything he could ever need or want, the  _ love of his life _ ?

That was how they ended up walking quietly next to each other as the Party wandered through the park.

“Okay - okay, guys, we need to think of other rides for El.”

“Dustin, she can pick her own rides -”

“Yeah, but she’s never been here before, the least we can do is give her some recommendations,  _ Max _ .”

“What about the Drop?”

Mike looked at Lucas with his eyebrows raised. “The Drop? Are you crazy?”

“What’s the Drop?” Max asked. “Wait, is it the big scaffolding thing we passed a little while ago? Because if that’s what it is, I totally know what that is and I  _ love it _ .”

“Oh my god, really?” Lucas’s jaw dropped. “The Drop is my favorite ride!”

Dustin rolled his eyes. “We get it, you guys are basically soulmates. Can we keep moving?”

Oh yeah, that. Max and Lucas had been dating since November of the past year. They were each other’s intellectual match, firing witty teases and insults back and forth in the way that other couples told each other they loved them. Mike would never say this aloud, but he was jealous of the two of them, jealous of their easy chemistry and the way that they looked at each other.

“We’re going to the Drop,” Max announced, throwing an arm around Lucas’s shoulders, “and you guys are coming with us.”

“Okay,  _ what _ ?” El seemed to spit her words. “Can someone just, explain to me what the hell is going on?”

There was a split second where the whole Party, including Mike, had no words. It wasn’t unheard of for El to be frustrated, but it was for her to snap at them.

Max was the first to speak. “The Drop is basically what it sounds like. You strap into this thing with a couple of other people, and then they hoist you really high up with what’s basically a pulley system, and then you pull a ripcord and then swing through the air and it’s  _ amazing- _ ”

“But you don’t have to go on it!” Lucas interjected. “No pressure, I mean. It’s really intense.”

“And you think I can’t handle it?” El’s tone was joking, but her eyes showed the glint of a challenge.

“I never said -”

“Well what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” El turned to Mike, an eyebrow raising.

He blinked in confusion. “I guess, yeah, let’s go.”

A silent moment passed, where Mike could see Max glancing around the group. “Last one to the Drop is a rotten egg!” She and Lucas immediately took off in separate directions. Max then realized she didn’t know where she was going and followed her boyfriend. Dustin ran after them, and without so much as a glance towards Mike, El followed. He watched her go as Will got in front of him.

“Dude. Mike. Are you okay?” Will waved his hand in front of Mike’s face.

He shook his head and blinked hard. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine, Will, let’s get going.”

“Oh yes, God forbid we become rotten eggs,” Will said dryly. Mike shook his head. Mrs. Byers and Chief Hopper had only been married for going on two years, but Will’s and El’s senses of humor were already aligned. “But don’t lie to me, Michael, I know there’s something going on.”

Mike pushed past him and began walking after the others. “It’s nothing,” he dismissed, “nothing you could help with anyway.”

“Ah, so there  _ is  _ something!” Will all but scampered to Mike’s side. “You don’t like that El’s doing something without you, do you?”

“No! What kind of douchebag do you think I am?” Mike said incredulously. “She can do whatever she wants. She always has.”

“Mmhmm.”

“It’s true!”

“Oh, I know, Mike, she’s my sister.” Will took a deep breath. “But here is the thing, my friend, from where I was sitting on that roller coaster, you were looking at her like she was the most wonderful thing you’d ever seen. And just now, you were looking at her like your dog just died. So, I’m thinking something happened between then and now. How close am I?”

Mike didn’t answer. He’d like to think that he wasn’t  _ that _ easy to read, but Will had more or less hit the nail on the proverbial head.

Will smiled . “I’m taking that as a yes.”

“What are you smiling about?”

“Oh, nothing. Just that I was right.”

“Right about me being an absolute loser who’s in love with someone who’ll never like him back?” Mike kicked a pebble with the tip of his shoe.

Will blinked, confused, but still smirking. “Wait, you’re in love with her?”

Mike stopped in his tracks. “You - did you - you just - you were messing with me. You wanted to make me -”

“Admit that you’re in love with my step-sister? You got it.” Will kept on walking. Mike, over the initial whiplash, caught up with him.

“ _ Please _ don’t tell her, she’s my best friend and I can’t risk her finding out because then our friendship would be ruined and -”

“ _ She’s _ your best friend?” Will placed his hand over his heart in mock injury.

“Oh shut up,” He was spiraling, his thoughts running at a thousand miles per hour.

“Mike, honestly. I won’t tell her,” Will said, his voice conveying all sincerity. “I just want you both to be happy.”

“And you think she’d be happy with me?” Mike didn’t expect an answer, he’d realized a long time ago to the idea that El Hopper was, in the simplest of terms, miles out of his league.

“Maybe. I don’t know,” Will shrugged. “Hey, we’re here!”

The Drop, which consisted of two skyscraper-tall structures with cable strung between them, loomed ahead over a large pond. Mike gulped as he took it in. Memories rushed back at him all at once. At age ten, his father had tried to force him to go on the ride, despite his fear of heights.  _ Be a man, Michael _ , he’d said,  _ grow the hell up _ .

He’d ran away and hid in the arcade for hours until his sister Nancy found him.

Mike felt himself being led over to the railing around the pond.

“What’s got him all emo?” he heard Dustin ask Will.

“Oh, you know, life and whatnot,” Will replied, keeping his and Mike’s conversation private.

“You know I can still hear you, right?” Mike joked, tearing his eyes away from the ride.

“Sure you can, space cadet,” Dustin said, nudging Mike’s side. With a glance up, he pointed in the air over the lake. “Oh look, they’re up.”

Mike’s gaze followed Dustin’s finger, and saw the cables and harness of the Drop hoisting three figures into the air. There was a flash of bright red hair, a green bandana, and the glow of unmistakable caramel-brown hair, and Mike’s stomach dropped as they did -  _ El. _

The trio, bound together in a three-person harness, swung through the air, whooping and shrieking. Mike, however, was watching them with a pit in his stomach.  _ Maybe _ , Will’d said. Maybe it wasn’t as hopeless as Mike thought it was. Maybe El meant something,  _ anything _ by holding his hand. Maybe…

“Hey, they’re finished, c’mon,” Dustin said, jogging over to the exit area. Mike, smiling for the first time since he got off of the Looper Trooper, followed him.

El, Max, and Lucas walked off of the ride with arms linked, inexplicably reminding Mike of  _ The Wizard of Oz _ . At least they weren’t skipping.

“Mike, I have  _ no  _ clue what you were talking about, that was  _ awesome _ !” El's smile was radiant as the two groups met.

“Yeah, Mike, what’s up with that? Do you have a thing about heights or something?” Max laughed.

Before Mike could respond with a scathing comeback about Max’s fear of spiders, El gave Max a disapproving look. “Don’t be rude, Max.” El’s tone was the epitome of “mom friend,” which immediately started Dustin and Lucas making jokes about that. As it usually went in The Party, that just spiraled into general friendly roasts as they walked along.

Mike spoke under his breath to El as they followed their friends. “Hey, are we okay?” El looked up at him, her head tilting to a confused angle. “It’s just that you seemed frustrated after you got off of the Looper and I wanted to make sure -”

“Mike. It’s okay, we’re fine,” El interrupted, smiling kindly. “And you didn’t do anything.”

“I didn’t say-”

“No, but I know how you think, nerd.”

He looked down for a moment. She understood him better than anyone, and throwing an arm over her shoulders, he smiled. Maybe there was a shred of hope for the two of them.

Maybe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yall im sO excited for the next chapter, it's from will's perspective and it's gonna be great  
> also i promise to update in less than three months next time  
> also also ted wheeler is an ass  
> also also also did anyone catch my funny stranger things joke??? lol  
> mmkay love yall byeeeeee

**Author's Note:**

> i promise there's more to come and all will end well  
> but first you must suffer.


End file.
